I don't think I ever really learned to be a team player--I've been seeing that when decisions need to be made, I either want to dictate how things will be OR I want someone else to make the decision and I'll live with it. I don't really like making decisions "together". Definitely something I need to grow in for the sake of Marshall, my mom (in wedding planning), and my coworkers! haha . . .
This morning was another episode of "Randy Pope does NOT make this stuff up!" i.e., he doesn't even deduce things from concepts in scripture (oh other than the PCA's infant baptism--not relevanat)--he gets it from the Bible! I read Jeremiah 12, where Jeremiah basically says, "God, you're good and you listen to me, but I want to talk to you about your justice"--and he essentially asks, "Why don't bad things happen to bad people--and why do bad things happen to good people?" God's answer? That justice would not be a good thing for the "good" people Jeremiah alludes to; that there are no "good" people, so justice would put every single person in the wake of "the Lord's fierce anger" (verse 13). Which means they will be destroyed--vs. 17. Really? It's hard to read, but yes: really.
BUT after saying that, God says that he will have compassion on both his people Israel AND on non-Jews who give up their false gods and devote their lives to him. It struck me as such rich compassion--God draws a clear analogy throughout this book and the rest of the Old Testament: Israel was his bride, but she is prostituting herself with other gods (Jer.3:1, 20; 5:11). She goes through the motions of a relationship with him, but she doesn't truly love him. Her heart is somewhere else (Jer. 12:2).
Why don't I always hear God's emotions in what he writes? He loved his people but they betrayed him. He pursued and captivated their hearts--they sang songs to him, like in Exodus 15 after he rescued them from slavery. And he knew they would forget and want to be unfaithful to him--so he warned them not to forget. but they forgot and betrayed him over and over and over and over. Isn't this what sin does to all of us? We are betraying, unfaithful, selfish people who disregard the One who loves us. I have hurt him--the one who loves me and has given me everything.
But even in the midst of my betrayal, he calls to me, "Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding" (Jer. 3:22). His compassion is so rich that Christ--God as a man--took the "Lord's fierce anger" on himself in my place, even though he had lived his life faithfully to the Lord and deserved zero anger. He is the only person who justly didn't deserve God's punishment. But he died out of love for me--while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). It is amazing that I am loved like that--what a good God I serve! Lord, give me an undivided heart.
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